The only winless team in the NFL has become so irrelevant their most hated rivals don’t seem to be all that excited in beating them.
The Denver Broncos dispatched the Raiders 13-3 on Sunday night at Invesco Field with the clinical effectiveness of an archeologist on a dig.
The Broncos were coming off a short week after a physical Monday night game against Baltimore, and probably didn’t see the need to waste an extra level against a team they considered absolutely no threat.
Although 2-18 in the AFC West since the start of the 2003 season, the Raiders came away thinking their own mistakes had caused their own demise, and that the gap between themselves and the Broncos was no more than a few dumb penalties, a turnover or two and a blown coverage.
“We just keep shooting ourselves in the foot. It just doesn’t make any sense,” defensive tackle Warren Sapp said. “We work on things all week long, then we come out and look like we haven’t worked on anything. Anything.”
LaMont Jordan, who gained 60 yards on 23 carries and lost a fumble at the Denver 27 with the Raiders driving and 4:24 to play, believed his mistake may have cost the Raiders the game and with a serious face talked of finishing 11-5 or 10-6.
Sapp, Jordan and many others are paid to think that way. No self-respecting professional athlete would say anything else. Same with coach Art Shell.
“We made too many mistakes against a good team,” Shell said.
Those on the outside look at the Raiders and see defeat as an inevitable occurrence and a form of natural selection.
Broncos win, Raiders lose.
The loss lacked the demoralizing physical pounding the Raiders took in their most recent AFC West game, a 27-0 loss to the San Diego Chargers in the season opener.
This one was different, as the Broncos toyed and teased the Raiders, allowing them to feel tantalizingly close to one of the NFL’s elite teams and retain what is looking more and more each week like a sense of denial.
The Raiders were seemingly one big play away from re-entering the contest. It was as if all Oakland needed was a big turnover, a huge return, a long run, and they’d suddenly be in position to do something positive.
It was an illusion.
If the Raiders want to learn how to win, they need look no farther than the other side of the field. In five games, the Broncos have scored 62 points and have a 4-1 record. They could write a thesis on the subject.
Just as the Chargers essentially sat on the ball in the second half, realizing Oakland was harmless offensively, the Broncos ran their offense efficiently but without doing anything truly daring other than a 29-yard reverse by Javon Walker.
It’s the way most teams figure to play the Raiders this season. Oakland does not have a viable NFL offense, something that doesn’t figure to change any time soon.
Randy Moss broke loose for a 51-yard completion from Andrew Walter, his longest gain of the season by 29 yards. Oakland got nothing out of it when Moss ran a corner route that Champ Bailey read perfectly and intercepted the pass at the 1-yard line.
NBC sideline reporter Andrea Kremer, stationed on the Oakland sideline, said Moss took a knee on the sideline and grumbled about quarterback Andrew Walter, who threw the pass.
Jordan, the big-money acquisition last year, needed a 13-yard run in the late going to get to 60 yards. One week after failing to run down a lateral that resulted in a 49ers touchdown, his fumble kept the Raiders from getting within reach.
Jerry Porter was at home on suspension for cussing out his coach.
Moss, Jordan and Porter were supposed to be the three weapons Oakland was counting on to bring the team back to respectability.
Oakland’s offensive line was whistled for six of the team’s eight false starts. Chad Slaughter, who went in at right tackle when Langston Walker suffered a concussion, had four of them.
The discipline Shell was supposed to instill was nowhere in sight. Defensively, Stanford Routt and Terdell Sands had senseless personal fouls. Routt took a swing at wide receiver Brandon Marshall and helped put Jason Elam in position for a 51-yard field goal.
The Raiders finished with a season-high 13 penalties for 95 yards.
Although the Broncos scored only 13 points, Sapp was seething over surrendering a 54-yard pass from Jake Plummer to Javon Walker, setting up the Broncos’ only touchdown.
Walker beat cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha and was absent safety help, with Jarrod Cooper coming up to defend against Plummer’s reverse roll.
“When you’re standing on the sidelines during the commercial break saying, ‘Watch the shot, watch the shot,’ and then they come out and beat you with a shot, it makes you want to slit your wrists,” Sapp said.
As for the Broncos, there was no such exaggeration, only the confidence that comes from a title contender who has won a mere tune-up bout.
